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Get Away Review
Image Credit: IFC FIlms & Shudder
Loading...Directed by: Steffen Haars
Written by: Nick Frost
Starring:
Nick Frost – Richard
Aisling Bea – Susan
Sebastian Croft – Sam
Maisie Ayres – Jessie
Ville Virtanen – Detective Forsberg
Eero Milonoff – Matts
Anitta Suikkari – Klara
Jouko Ahola – Sven
Running Time: 86 minutes
Rated R for strong bloody violence and gore, language and sexual content.
There aren’t many actors as warmly associated with horror comedy as Nick Frost. From Shawn of the Dead and Hot Fuzz to Attack the Block, Krazy House and the Prime Video series Truth Seekers, Frost has long shown a love for projects that combine scares and laughs. It’s always nice to see him return to the genre, especially when his track record is generally pretty good for that notoriously tricky combination of humor and terror.
Frost’s latest horror comedy, Get Away, takes aim at two horror subgenres simultaneously in the vacation horror film and folk horror. Arriving on Shudder on Friday, the Steffen Haars-directed film keeps a light touch with comedy at first, leaning into more ominous vibes until it’s time to go bonkers with a deliciously fun third act.
After a nightmarish opening sequence suggesting cannibalism on the fictional Swedish island of Svalta 200 years ago, Get Away takes us to the present where the Smith family – father Richard (Frost), mother Susan (Aisling Bea), son Sam (Sebastian Croft) and daughter Jessie (Maisie Ayres) are travelling to the island on holiday. They’re heading to Svalta in time for the island’s yearly Karantan festival, which remembers a dark quarantine of the island 200 years ago.
The children are less than enthused about the notion of visiting a quarantining island, while Richard and Susan are excited about absorbing the local history. But the villagers are far from welcoming to outsiders, as the Smiths are told by the unfriendly proprietors of a diner. That proves to be true as they arrive and are met by stern faces, particularly that of Klara (Anitta Suikkari), the elder of the village who takes offense to their staying – especially considering that Susan is descended from one of the English officers who died on the island during the quarantine.
As the two days until Karantan unfolds, the Smiths find increasingly ominous signs popping up around them. The owner of their Airbnb acts strangely; the villagers gather outside their home at night in robes and strange masks. And when people start turning up dead on the island and coffins are loaded ashore, it’s clear that a fight for survival lies ahead.
It’s always hard to strike the proper balance between tones in a horror comedy. When you’re playing off two different horror subgenres, the difficulty increases even more. Fortunately, Frost (who wrote the script) understands how to navigate those balances. He deftly sets up the family and culture clash humor in the first act to set our expectations, then ramps up the creepy village vibes before letting loose in a big way in act three.
It’s a nice bit of plotting all in all, though the “vacationers vs. the locals” beats get a bit repetitive toward the end of act two as the pacing starts to drag and some of the gags (a Psycho reference in particular) don’t quite land. Haars relies on the talented cast to carry the comedy, and he has an apt cast for it. Bea and Frost are well-matched as the corny parents, with Croft and Ayres playing the disaffected kid roles to perfection.
Whatever minor issues that the second act has, they vanish when it’s time to go hog wild in the final act and things get riotously violent. Haars and Frost subvert a number of tropes at this point to deliver the payoff for what the film has been building to. It’s funny, gory and is boosted by a delightful needle drop out of nowhere for the biggest action sequence. It results in the kind of film that may even benefit from a rewatch to pick up on nuances that may have been missed the first time around.
Get Away is at its best when it’s knowingly playing with its genres and allowing its cast to play off each other. It has fun with its folk horror elements (you can see a lot of Midsommar influence here in particular) and the sillier it gets, the more fun everyone is having. At under 90 minutes, even the few pacing issues aren’t enough to drag things down. It may not quite match Frost’s comedy horror heights, but it gets Shudder’s 2025 off to a bloody good start.
Get Away premieres on Shudder and AMC+ on January 10th.
